After skiing Les Arcs with sbooker and family, we drove to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to spend the night. We would recommend the Savoy hotel there to James. The hotel was not half board but its restaurant was excellent and reasonably priced. We had about a 20 minute drive up to Valloire/Valmeinier the next morning, and Orelle’s transport gondola is also nearby.
We parked at the Armera base and rode the Grandes Drozes and Moneul lifts to the ridgeline between Valloire and Valmeinier. View to eastern sector of Valmeinier:
View across the Maurienne Valley:
Orelle’s ski terrain is somewhere in the high alpine of those distant mountains.
View NW down the Maurienne Valley:
View west:
We skied to the Brive2 chair, then a long run starting with Blanchon and continuing to Cornafond. We figured correctly that Cornafond, north facing and topping out at 8,300 feet, would have good snow, so we skied its ungroomed black run.
For the same viewpoint the sun exposed opposite side is still a long way from being skiable off piste.
Our day was 15-20F with mostly high clouds. Overall the conditions were similar to the prior day at Les Arcs. We encountered more manmade piste subsurfaces because we were sometimes at lower elevation while at Les Arcs we had only our last run below 2,000 meters.
After the Cornafond lap we skied the Bouquetin and JB Grange runs to the Valloire base.
JB Grange was pleasantly empty at noon though I’m sure it would not be late in the day. Overall Valloire/Valmeinier was far from deserted. We Americans may not know about it but the Brits do. We rode a chair with a British lady who spends a week here every season.
We used the Setaz gondola and Montissot chair to return to the central area. We noticed a few leftovers from last week under the Montissot chair.
We then headed for the Grand Plateau poma.
We hoped to ski the 2,300 vertical Combe Orsiere to Valmeinier 1,800, but it and the other two pistes were closed, presumably due to avalanche exposure. So the only way to Valmeinier 1,800 was via the winding Pierre du Midi catwalk.
We rode Inversins to Sandoniere, the highest lift in the complex at 8,900 feet. Perhaps this lift had not been open for awhile as there were some powder opportunities.
That was followed by a long traverse under the lift to this short steep shot.
It was about 3:15 so we skied Rhodos to the Jeux chair, then a long Violettes + Eglantiers run to the Valmeinier Village base. I skied 22,500 vertical. The Armera chair, a transport lift over a deep ravine, returned us to our parking.
We parked at the Armera base and rode the Grandes Drozes and Moneul lifts to the ridgeline between Valloire and Valmeinier. View to eastern sector of Valmeinier:
View across the Maurienne Valley:
Orelle’s ski terrain is somewhere in the high alpine of those distant mountains.
View NW down the Maurienne Valley:
View west:
We skied to the Brive2 chair, then a long run starting with Blanchon and continuing to Cornafond. We figured correctly that Cornafond, north facing and topping out at 8,300 feet, would have good snow, so we skied its ungroomed black run.
For the same viewpoint the sun exposed opposite side is still a long way from being skiable off piste.
Our day was 15-20F with mostly high clouds. Overall the conditions were similar to the prior day at Les Arcs. We encountered more manmade piste subsurfaces because we were sometimes at lower elevation while at Les Arcs we had only our last run below 2,000 meters.
After the Cornafond lap we skied the Bouquetin and JB Grange runs to the Valloire base.
JB Grange was pleasantly empty at noon though I’m sure it would not be late in the day. Overall Valloire/Valmeinier was far from deserted. We Americans may not know about it but the Brits do. We rode a chair with a British lady who spends a week here every season.
We used the Setaz gondola and Montissot chair to return to the central area. We noticed a few leftovers from last week under the Montissot chair.
We then headed for the Grand Plateau poma.
We hoped to ski the 2,300 vertical Combe Orsiere to Valmeinier 1,800, but it and the other two pistes were closed, presumably due to avalanche exposure. So the only way to Valmeinier 1,800 was via the winding Pierre du Midi catwalk.
We rode Inversins to Sandoniere, the highest lift in the complex at 8,900 feet. Perhaps this lift had not been open for awhile as there were some powder opportunities.
That was followed by a long traverse under the lift to this short steep shot.
It was about 3:15 so we skied Rhodos to the Jeux chair, then a long Violettes + Eglantiers run to the Valmeinier Village base. I skied 22,500 vertical. The Armera chair, a transport lift over a deep ravine, returned us to our parking.
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